they say it's your birthday ...
status check - sentimental
background ambiance - office chatter


21 years ago today, i lost my prized status as a single child. i'm surprised by how much i remember of the day.


i can recall traveling with my grandmother to beverly hospital, where i felt silly donning a paper gown over my patterned turtleneck and green pants. i wasn't sure of what i was going to see inside, all i knew was that my mother and father were there.


we walked into the room and i saw my mother propped up on a hospital bed ahead of me to the right. the walls were sage green. my father sat on the other side of the bed, by a window, and there was a fascinating phone on the stand by the bed. it was a streamlined and white and i kept staring at it. i don't recall who else was in the room.


i don't remember my first thoughts upon seeing the little creature also present. but i do remember sitting in the chair my father vacated so i could hold my brother. i was scared of dropping him and thought his face was red and funny-looking. my parents have a picture of this moment. i'm looking up at the camera, biting my lower lip as a i smiled and held the baby.


i remember giving my parents hugs before we left. as we drove back to my grandmother's house, she told me that i would need to help mom and dad take care of tommy - i was a sister now and i had an important job.


funny to think of tom as that little red bundle of human, now that he's six feet tall and a full-fledged legal adult who could drink if he so chose. he's not an adult to me yet, although hanging out with him recently has shown me how we've matured and grown close as siblings and friends. to think, he was the little kid who knocked my two front teeth out (with his head) during a pillow fight at the old house in middleton. the kid who was as accident-prone as can be and loved monster trucks and anything loud (wait, the monster trucks might be a thing of the past, but anything loud still seems to appeal to him).


i used to always tease him about his birthday. "april 15. titanic sinks, lincoln dies, taxes are due, you're born. notice a trend?"


anyway, sentimentality concluded, i'm happy to wish my brother the happiest of 21st birthdays. love you, tombo.